Creating stunning carved woodwork has never been easier than with a CNC router. Think of all the creative milling possibilities: door panels, drawer lids, fascia boards, emblems, awards, artwork, signs, or your signature carved into the back of a project. The more you use your CNC router, the more projects you will find for it.
Not only does a CNC router add interest and beauty to your work, but just watching the machine dance across the workpiece, methodically and precisely creating beautiful carvings is enjoyable. A CNC milling machine can also be a tireless helper in a hand carving workshop.
So how do you start carving wood on a CNC machine? There are three basic elements to consider: the artwork, the type of work, and the carving process. First, we need a digital image. You can create your own or find one online. To create a three-dimensional image suitable for carving requires specialized software. Vectric Aspire, Rhino and 3D Systems Geomagic Freeform are some of the many examples of software that can create 3D models suitable for CNC carving.
Creating files for milling requires CAM software capable of working with 3D digital images. Once you have found a 3D image file and loaded it into your CAM program, the model can be scaled: enlarged or reduced, made deeper or shallower, narrowed or widened, made taller or shorter to suit your requirements.
Carving on a CNC router is usually done in high relief style. The carved area may be located below the surrounding surface in the form of a pocket or recess, or it may be carved to rise above the surrounding surface. Another option is to create a carving that is cut out of the original material and can then be attached to panels, architectural elements, etc.
Milling a three-dimensional pattern is usually done in two stages. The first is rough cutting, which removes the bulk of the material, leaving a recognizable low-resolution image. A straight helix drill is suitable for this operation as it cuts and removes chips efficiently.
The difference between excellent and average milling comes down to the pitch and lateral speed parameters when setting up files for milling. Pitch is the distance between tool passes during an operation. The larger the pitch, the faster the cutting process, but less detail. Smaller pitch means longer process time, but higher detail. Typically, roughing cutting speed can be controlled with maximum pitch and side speed. However, finishing cutting requires some care to find the right balance between detail and production time. One last tip: when you change from roughing drill to finishing drill, remember to zero the axis height.
CNC and hand tools
Time to confess: I’m a woodcarver at heart and prefer hand tools, but I’ve found that a CNC router and band saw can be great helpers in preparing materials. Let’s say you need to cut a dozen top covers for wrapping Christmas gifts. You can program your CNC milling machine to make only a rough draft of the design. After that, you’ll need to bring the carving to life in a way that the machine can’t, with sharp details and hand texturing.
Many familiar BARELWOOD carvers already use hand carvers and CNC routers to speed up the background cleanup process when making signs. Another way to enhance hand carving with a router is to transfer layout lines from a downloadable file. With a small straight or V cutter, complex markings are easily transferred from the image to the workpiece.
Whether you use a CNC router for finishing milling or to increase speed and convenience in your manual work, explore it, you may find new solutions it has to offer. You may be surprised at what this digital assistant can do in the workshop.
